RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — In a surprise move, a Saudi Christian arrested in January for describing his conversion from Islam and criticizing the kingdom’s judiciary on his blog site was released March 28 with the stipulation that he not travel outside of Saudi Arabia or appear in media.
Hamoud Saleh Al-Amri, 28, reportedly attributed his release to advocacy efforts by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI).
The Cairo-based organization had campaigned for his release along with other rights groups. Gamal Eid, director of ANHRI, said he believed his organization had nothing to do with Al-Amri’s release. Rather, he said he believed officials were loath to keep a person of questionable mental stability in prison.
“He is mentally not stable because he had the courage to say in his blog that he is a Christian,” Eid said. “Anyone in his right mind in Saudi Arabia wouldn’t do that.”
The country’s penalty for “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, is death, although in recent years there have been no known cases of kingdom citizens formally convicted and sentenced with capital punishment for the offense.
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